The Northeast is getting older, and those states are feeling the squeeze

In this photo made Friday, Aug. 31, 2012, a couple strolls through Camden, Maine. The small coastal town is often cited in lists of best retirement places to move for people interested in cooler climates. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Most of the nation’s oldest population is now clustered in the Northeast and growing rapidly, according to Census data, straining medical, housing and transportation budgets and forcing lawmakers to look for new approaches. And legislators and governors are reaching the conclusion that the way to pay for the elderly is to cater to the young.

That’s because younger residents just beginning their careers make up the foundation of a tax base that can support older workers who have retired or will soon do so. And a decade of dramatic internal migrations away from Northeastern states and toward the Sun Belt and the Mountain West is putting those shrinking tax bases into the spotlight.

Eight of the top 11 states with the oldest populations are in the Northeast, according to the 2010 Census. The median age in Maine is 42.7 years; in Vermont and New Hampshire it’s above 41. West Virginia’s population has aged precipitously, too, with a median age of 41.3 years – six years older than it was in 1990.

Different picture

Twenty years ago, the picture was much different. The 1990 Census listed Florida residents as the oldest in the nation, at a median age of 36.2 years. West Virginia was the second-grayest state; there, the median age stood at 35.3 years old.

In the intervening two decades, baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, began marching toward retirement. Boomers are less likely to move around the country than younger Americans, who, affected by the recession and the drop in economic opportunities in the Northeast and the Rust Belt, have moved en masse to Southern and Western states. Those factors have sent the median age of Northeastern states soaring.

“There’s a demographic explosion,” said Lawrence Force, director of the Center on Aging and Policy at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y. “It definitely challenges us to rethink current policy. The funding cannot keep pace with the current demographics, and the reason is the policies were created when the demographics didn’t look like they do today.”

Older states are starting to feel the squeeze. In Maine, more than 1,500 seniors are on waiting lists for a state Medicaid program and home care services; by 2030, more than 25 percent of the state’s residents will be older than 65, according to data compiled by the Portland Press-Herald. More than 18,000 Mainers are turning 65 every year, the AARP reported.

The sharp rise of older populations means states will be forced to dedicate higher percentages of their budgets to social services. The federal government pays the costs of Medicare, the program that provides health care to senior citizens, but states subsidize housing, transportation, home care and other costs. With higher percentages of seniors, states have smaller tax bases to draw from to pay for those services.

Keeping younger residents

States are taking differing approaches to expand those tax bases, and to keep younger residents from fleeing to other regions.

In Maine, Republican Gov. Paul LePage blames high taxes for the exodus of younger residents. Lowering the tax burden and creating a “business-friendly” state, he said, would keep taxpayers in the state and attract new companies – and, with them, new jobs. LePage’s administration has proposed eliminating income taxes on pensions, which they hope will make Maine a “retirement destination.”

“Maine’s demographic imbalance means that there will be fewer employees for businesses, and there will be fewer customers to buy their goods and services,” LePage said in a statement. “Maine’s high-tax policies discourage young people from moving to Maine and staying in Maine, and they discourage entrepreneurs from creating jobs. That is why we cut taxes. Those efforts are working, and thousands of new private-sector jobs have been created in Maine since I took office.”

Democrats who control governor’s mansions in New Hampshire and Vermont, two other states that have aged rapidly over the last two decades, take a different approach. They tend to point to accomplishments and goals in the education arena. Their hopes are to build their tax base by keeping students, as well as attracting new employers.

New Hampshire Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan pushed for more funding for the state university system to offset revenue lost when the university board voted for a two-year tuition freeze. And the state has set up a nonprofit group dubbed Stay, Work, Play New Hampshire, to encourage younger Granite Staters to stick around over the long term, a spokesman said.

“When these New Hampshire natives complete school, they often choose not to return, depriving our economy of talented people with the energy and skills needed to drive innovation,” Hassan said in her inaugural address this January. “We need to renew our tradition of attracting new citizens to our state, and we need to help our young people stay here, raise their own families here, and remain part of the future of New Hampshire.”

Vermont, too, is focusing on retaining natives and attracting transplants, said Leigh Appleby, a spokesman for Gov. Peter Shumlin. Vermont’s Department of Labor works with the business community to connect prospective employees with job vacancies, in hopes of keeping them in state.

Here's an issue that has been slowly developing over the years. I think it's going to become a major issue in another 10 years or so. Young people are leaving northern New England because it's just not an appealing place for them to live. Let's face it: northern New England is a pretty dull place unless you really want to spend a lot of time outdoors. Concord in-particular, is a ghost-town at night. And the hard-core, yankee attitude of the natives isn't exactly welcoming either. We need smart, energetic, innovative young people to build our economy for the future. It is them who will support the retirees. I just posted yesterday about college grads looking for work outside of NH. There's nothing for them here. We need to make this state a destination for them otherwise we're going to wither away into obscurity.

ItsaRepublic wrote:

09/15/2013

"the hard-core, yankee attitude of the natives isn't exactly welcoming either" Wow, I know that we are not Hialeah, Florida or or Providence, RI or Syracuse, NY or Reading, MA where everyone is into everyone elses business but that "yankee attitude" is nothing to be ashamed of. No one asked out of staters to come here, if those folks assimilated instead of bringing their bad habits (and attitudes) with them, maybe things would be different. I will, however, agree with you that there is little here for young grads and we must bring industry into NH. That starts with low taxes not and incentives for them to relocate here but it also means getting our young people to stay here and work for those companies. Concord is a ghost town, I agree with you there as well. I think the dull place stuff is misplaced. The bright lights / big city stuff is fun, I get that every week as I am in NY, Philly, Hartford but coming home to this "dull" place. IMO, too much of anything is pretty boring.